


Morning Banter

by bhgeorge19



Category: Persona 4
Genre: Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-20
Updated: 2013-08-20
Packaged: 2017-12-24 04:10:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,571
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/935161
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bhgeorge19/pseuds/bhgeorge19
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Drabble commission. Daisuke and Kou several years after the game, in a marital/domestic setting.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Morning Banter

He frowned. His heavy brows settled over squinting eyes, perfecting the look of sheer disappointment required for the occasion. It was so early in the day, and, yet again, he found himself dealing this. “Dude, it’s bad enough I wake up to you drooling on the pillow and you pressing your cold feet on my legs, every night. And I can live with that... but seriously, seriously, dude, would it kill you...?”

 

“W-What?”

 

Daisuke held up the object of the crime, shaking it slightly and effortlessly, so that the emptiness of the milk carton was evident for all to see under the dramatic light of the fridge.

 

When Kou looked up his cheeks colored. However, after a moment of being agape and looking caught, he found the words. “You’re right. It would kill me. I would die instantaneously.”

 

With a snort, Daisuke rolled his eyes and did away with the empty container, but not without staring at the familiar face of the Junes mascot, which decorated the outside of all their store-brand products. With the light of the open fridge adding extra dramatic illumination to it, he found his still groggy eyes focusing on the blond face of the store had his hands on his hips, and was wiggling a finger while a speech bubble coming from his mouth went on about the of calcium and how it was beary useful if you wanted to grow up healthy, strong, and into a ‘big, healthy bear like me!’

 

Daisuke held the carton over the garbage bin, ceremoniously, and let his fingers snap open to let it fall...

 

“Doesn’t it freak you out that this guy still looks the same?” he asked.

 

“They explain it in the commercials,” said Kou from where he sat by their small lunch table, legs folded perfectly under himself, one hand on the bowl of cereal that he’d already been finishing the moment Daisuke had come into the room. “‘He’s a star, and stars shine for a long time!’” he recited, waving his unoccupied spoon in Daisuke’s direction, in a didactic manner, before dropping it. “Seriously, dude, pay attention.”

 

After a bit of rummaging in the kitchen, Daisuke crossed the small distance between the kitchen and the living room and used his sock-clad foot to push Kou to the ground-- successfully downing him while the other man was in a giggling fit. “Ohh, we’re cheeky today!”

 

Kou grinned up at him. “I’m not being cheeky.”

 

“Twenty years of knowing you and you still haven’t worked on that? Dude, you’re not convincing anyone with that big smile on your face,” Daisuke said, pushing down on Kou’s shoulder a bit. He brought himself to a maniacal smile. “Oh I’m sorry, officer! I swear I didn’t do it!”

 

“I-I said I’m not being cheeky!” Kou insisted, words drowning in laughter. “I’m serious! This is the face of pure honesty! And come on, you’re going to wrinkle my shirt!”

 

“Dude, if you were in my class I’d have you running laps so fast for that,” Daisuke removed his inquisitorial foot, and proceeded to settle down on the side of the table perpendicular to Kou’s. He’d brought some fruit slices and toast. “If you didn’t have to go to work, we’d sort out your bad habit of putting back empty cartons into the fridge right now.”

 

Kou straightened up. Laughter had already made his cheeks color a bit, but now a bit of the color was for different reasons. “Ohh, Nagase-sensei is going to teach me a lesson?” he asked, a bit softly.

 

Daisuke nearly choked on the slice of apple he’d put in his mouth. “Dude, I swear. I’ve told you not to fool around with that. ”

 

“Sorry coach. Do you want me to do sit-ups?”

 

“Gah!”

 

Kou laughed. “Man, I swear,” he went to pick out the last of the cereal in the bowl. “One would think you’d be all over that kind of joke.”

 

“Yeah, but then I grew up,” Daisuke replied, still focused on eating. “And when you’re dealing with kids, it’s not as funny. You start taking it seriously and the whole ‘naughty sensei’ thing gets uncomfortable fast.”

 

Now, without a smile, Kou nodded. “Sorry...”

 

Daisuke spent a moment eating and, affected by Kou’s true contriteness, ventured to make an exception to the rule: “Though it’s okay if I make the jokes...”

 

Kou arched a brow and laughed, a bit more gently. “Oh come on, you don’t have to do that for me if the jokes make you uncomfortable and all. I mean, I think it’s great. There’s a reason you’re everyone’s favorite coach in Yasogami. I think people can tell that you’re done of the right stuff, you know? The right moral fiber and all.”

 

“I like how you use the word ‘fiber’ on me, since I distinctly remember I wanted some cereal this morning and someone pulled a cruel trick with the milk.”

 

“Let it go, man. Let it go.”

 

With a chuckle, Daisuke went back to his food. “Thanks, though. I mean, I just… you remember all the sleazy teachers we had when we were kids?”

 

“I’m convinced Yasogami High rested on top of some strange shift on the Earth’s magnetic field or something, and it attracted all the sleazebags.” Kou nodded, faking a thousand-yard stare. Besides the fact he lacked the trauma for it, he really had to fake it given the apartment was small, anyway, and the word ‘thousand’ would never apply for any measure of it.

 

“Yep.”

 

“But everything changed when Daisuke Nagase, star player of the school, came in to become everyone’s favorite teacher,” Kou continued, still with melodrama, hoisting up his cereal spoon towards their humble, somewhat ratty ceiling lamp. He liked that thing, even if it didn’t match the decor of the apartment. Most things don’t when you put your place together over time and on a very short budget: it never feels like there’s a design, so much as a will to have a home.

 

“You mean everyone’s nightmare,” Daisuke corrected, with a lopsided smile. “Come on, man, I hear the things they say about me.”

 

“Yeah, but they only say those things while they’re in school. I’m the recruiting agent that’s gotten some of them playing in teams. I’m the one that hears what they say after they leave the school. You’re always the stand-up, good sensei that was there when they needed it, the one that got them to try their best, and made them believe you believed them...”

 

Daisuke was blushing. His thick brows furrowed over an avoiding gaze, fixed on the opposite corner of the room. “Dude, I… I’m okay, I don’t need you to tell me that to feel good.”

 

“Yes you do,” Kou said. “That’s what husbands are for. Plus,” he reached for his pocket. “I know I got this on a voice note since last time you cheered me up-- You’re the one that’s always saying that there’s no reason to be shy about words of encouragement and all.”

 

“It’s different,” Daisuke said, stuffing his mouth with food to avoid the responsibility of talking.

 

“No, it’s a double standard,” Kou said, reaching to steal an apple slice “use the right terms, I mean, you always show others support but you get all worked up when one tries to--OW.”

 

Daisuke had slapped the blunt side of the fork on his hand.

 

“Seriously?” Kou pouted. “You never let your guard down...”

 

“I’m the one who deals with almost a hundred kids every day. I need the nourishment,” Daisuke said, plainly, prior to regaining a sentimental tone. “But, uh, well… yeah, I guess it is a double standard.”

 

“Yeah, but it’s alright. I love you regardless of it,” Kou replied, only to frown with exaggerated darkness. “Your breakfast avarice, however-- yeah, that’s a deal breaker if there was one,” he grinned… prior to trying to grab food again.

 

Within seconds the morning conversation descended into Daisuke playing a quick and challenging game of fast reflexes as he tried to keep Kou’s pale hands away from his food using his fork. He’d christened this variant of whack-a-mole: Whack-a-Kou. But ultimately he lost one apple slice.

 

Kou threw his arms up triumphantly. “And he misses, ladies and gentlemen! The crowd goes wild!” he said, faking a cheer.

 

“You’re thirty and you’re still doing that?”

 

Kou got up from the table and began running in circles around it, still lost to the roar of the imaginary crowd.

 

“Don’t run with your stomach full!” Daisuke barked, though he grinned after a moment. “I think you’re really out to get on my bad side today!”

 

When Kou slowed to a halt, he did it with a smile on his face that, at least for Daisuke, completely justified all the hardships that came with crossing the class divide and marrying with a lot of people working against you. It was a bright smile. It lifted your spirits. Playful and sunny. “Well… and if I am, Nagase-sensei?”

 

“Then, I guess you won’t learn any other way. Someone is going to do some sit-ups.”

 

“Sensei, you’re so cruel.”

 

“Yeah, well… it’s for your own good. Come down here, and let’s get you started on your first set,” Daisuke said.

 

“Do I get a kiss first?”

 

“Will you stop putting back the empty milk cartons in the fridge?”

 

“Sure.”

 

“I don’t believe you, but come here, and give me a kiss anyway.”


End file.
